The Czech maestro Jirí Belohlávek performs works by his countryman Josef Suk, conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with whom he is their Chief Conductor.
As a composer, Josef Suk followed in the tradition of Smetana and Dvorák, the latter of whom was not only his professor at the Prague Conservatory, but also became his father-in-law – Suk married Dvorák’s oldest surviving daughter, Otilie, in 1898, and the death of Dvorák in 1904 and ‘Otilka’ a year later resulted in the composition of one of the composer’s most powerful and deeply felt works, the Asrael Symphony – also recorded by Belohlávek (CHAN 9640).
Like Novák – another key Dvorák pupil – Suk fully embraced his national background, composing in a late romantic style imbued with his individual approach to impressionism and native folk culture.
Following the success of his Serenade in E flat, Suk wished to take up the challenge of writing a symphony, influenced as he was by the contributions to the genre of his own teacher, and of Brahms. Suk’s First Symphony was actually begun in London in 1897 and completed two years later. This new CD provides an excellent opportunity to hear the rarely recorded early work, with its fresh melodic appeal and inventive orchestration. Ripening is one of the composer’s masterpieces, a highly colourful and superbly sustained symphonic poem, brilliantly orchestrated, with a chorus making its wordless contribution at the work’s late, emotional highpoint. Suk said of Ripening: ‘I worked on this composition for almost five years. In its very cohesive musical form you will find all degrees of human emotions. In this piece I immerse myself once more into the joys and tragic shadows of life but towards the end I emphasise, in the large fugue, that work is the liberator. After a large and passionate build-up of tension and excitement, towards the end a deep calm arrives in which, however, shimmers a hymn of affirmation and life.’

Reviews

“...It’s the best reading of the work [The Ripening] I’ve heard... The orchestra plays its heart out, leader Anna Coleman in particular handling her extreme high solos in ‘The Ripening’ with skill and sweetness.”Don O’Connor – American Music Guide – March/April 2011

"Belohlávek has long been an advocate of Josef Suk’s music and this CD underscores that devotion... This kaleidoscopic score demands virtuoso playing and it certainly receives it here...this is an impressive addition to the already impressive Suk canon."

Greg Keane - Limelight Magazine 19 January 2011

“…the SACD sound is the best Chandos has achieved in its highlighting of detail and texture – Ripening has never sounded better on disc …”Richard Whitehouse

International Record Review - November 2010

“Gramophone Recommends”
“A marvellous tone-poem and an early symphony from the creator of Asrael” “… proves a worthy addition to an admirable Suk series.”Rob Cowan

“There is danger that one will tire of praising Chandos for its exploration of the less-familiar byways of the repertoire … but not yet. This is quite the most coruscating reading of Suk’s orchestral masterpiece Ripening that one is likely to hear – with a forensically detailed recording that matches the exemplary performance."Barry Forshaw 29 September 2010

’...Belohlavek inspires the BBCSO to a blazing performance.’ ****Geoffrey Norris